1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to a technique for making a local copy of a Web page to facilitate client-side browsing of the page content.
2. Description of the Related Art
The World Wide Web is the Internet's multimedia information retrieval system. In the Web environment, client machines effect transactions to Web servers using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which is a known application protocol providing users access to files (e.g., text, graphics, images, sound, video, etc.) using a standard page description language known as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). HTML provides basic document formatting and allows the developer to specify "links" to other servers and files. In the Internet paradigm, a network path to a server is identified by a so-called Uniform Resource Locator (URL) having a special syntax for defining a network connection. Use of an HTML-compatible browser (e.g., Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer) at a client machine involves specification of a link via the URL. In response, the client makes a request to the server identified in the link and, in return, receives a document formatted according to HTML.
A typical Web page consists of a number of individual files including a base HTML document as well as a plurality of embedded image files (typically identified by their .gif or .jpeg extensions). Web browser programs temporarily cache some Web page content to obviate unnecessary server access (e.g., if the page and/or file is current and is already present on the client) and thus enhance performance. A browser cache, however, maintains the individual files that comprise the Web page in a structured list and not as a composite page. In some Web machines (e.g., a Web appliance), the browser cache is not even accessible to the user.
In today's Web environment, Web page content is often updated, sometimes on a daily or even hourly basis. This provides a significant advantage in that the user has access to current information and news. A disadvantage, however, is that information that may have been current an hour ago or yesterday may be out-of-date when the user revisits the Web page. It would be highly desirable to provide a mechanism to enable the user to take a "snap shot" of a given Web page so that the page (as then displayed) could be stored for subsequent retrieval. The browser cache mechanism does not have this capability. Thus, the only other option is for the user to make a hard copy of the Web page. If, however, the user did not make a hard copy of the prior page (when it was initially being viewed), then he or she will be unable to retrieve that content at a later time.
It would be very desirable to provide a user a simple technique to take a "snap shot" of a particular Web page that could be stored on the client machine and then retrieved for subsequent viewing or use.